LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A 40-year-old Beatrice man who had been released early and in error from prison got his day in the Nebraska’s highest court.

Kena Jackson was in the courtroom Thursday as his lawyer asked the Nebraska Supreme Court to rule that a judge didn’t have authority to send Jackson back to prison after the Department of Correctional Services had issued him a discharge certificate. Jackson was returned to prison without going before the judge or receiving a hearing.

Assistant Nebraska Attorney General James Smith told the judges that Jackson had no right to be free because “he was only free because of a negligent error.”

The court didn’t rule on Thursday.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Kansas woman rushing toward Lincoln after her water broke delivered twins on the side of the highway.

36-year old Laura Clark, of Barnes, Kansas, told her 39-year-old husband Kevin Clark to pull over Thursday morning and call 911, because one of the babies had already been born.

After placing the call, Kevin Clark says he wrapped the baby in a blanket and tied off the umbilical cord, and then the second one was born.

Lancaster County Sheriff’s Capt. Ben Houchin says rescue crews arrived shortly after the second birth and took the babies to Bryan Medical Center East Campus in Lincoln, where he says the newborn boy and girl are doing well.

The couple says they haven’t yet decided on names.

WATERLOO, Neb. (AP) — Officials have seized 21 cats and three dogs from an eastern Nebraska home after a neighbor complained about a nauseating smell.

Court documents say 50-year-old Athena Nielsen, of Waterloo, was cited for improper living conditions and too many animals. Local ordinances prohibit residents from owning more than three dogs and five cats.

Nielsen initially avoided authorities when they responded to the complaint. At another visit, Nielsen told them she owned only seven cats and two dogs.

Police obtained a search warrant and returned on Jan. 30, when they found the 24 animals. They were taken to the Nebraska Humane Society in Omaha.

Officials say one dog was euthanized and some cats were sick, but most have been adopted.

Online court records don’t list an attorney for Nielsen.

Two Nebraska State Patrol troopers escaped injury and two people were taken into custody after shots were fired at their patrol car during an attempted traffic stop in Omaha.

Just after midnight on Thursday, Feb.5, a trooper attempted a traffic stop of a 2002 Hyundai Accent, for a broken taillight, near the Interstate 680/I80 split. The vehicle traveling at a slow speed failed to stop continuing northbound onto I680. The vehicle continued at a slow speed turning east onto Center Street, before turning south on 108^th Street. As the vehicle turned south, a male leaned out of the passenger side window and fired shots from a shotgun striking the patrol car.

The trooper driving the patrol car took evasive action stopping the unit. The suspect vehicle continued on before being stopped by another trooper near 110^th and I Streets.  The female driver of the vehicle was taken into custody. The male suspect was not in the vehicle.

A perimeter was established in the area and the male suspect was located a little more than an hour later hiding in a vehicle near Prairie Hills Drive and Oak Street. He was taken into custody without incident.

The driver of the vehicle, Marissa D. McCormack, 27, of Omaha, was lodged in the Douglas County Corrections on charges of Accessory to felony, Flight to Avoid Arrest and Obstructing Law Enforcement

The passenger, Daniel J. Huerta Campbell, 34, of Council Bluffs, was lodged in the Douglas County Corrections on charges of  Assault on a Police Officer, Use of a Firearm to Committed a Felony, Felon in Possession of a Firearm, Obstructing an Officer.

The two troopers riding in the Patrol car were not injured. The Nebraska State Patrol was assisted by the Omaha Police Department.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Eastern Nebraska authorities say a teacher has been arrested on accusations he trespassed into a Girl Scout camp with a teenager and gave her alcohol.

Sarpy County deputies responded Tuesday night to Camp Maha in reference to a vehicle that drove down a restricted road and had gotten stuck in the snow. They found the 38-year-old behind the wheel with the 18-year-old girl inside.

The man was arrested on suspicion of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and procuring alcohol for a minor. He also was cited for trespassing.

Springfield Platteview Community Schools says the school employee has been placed on administrative leave. He is a sixth-grade teacher at Springfield Elementary School and a basketball coach at Platteview High School.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Texas-based company that makes piping and casing for oil and gas drilling has postponed plans to build a manufacturing plant in northeast Nebraska.

Tejas (TAY’-hahs) Tubular Products President Maximo Tejeda (teh-HAY’-duh) said he remains committed to building a mill next to Nucor Steel in Norfolk.

But Tejeda says uncertainty in the oil market has delayed his company’s aggressive timetable and forced adjustments in its growth plans.

Officials have said the $100 million plant would have employed 200 people.

Tejas Tubular headquarters is in Houston.

CRAWFORD, Neb. (AP) — A truck making a delivery to a uranium mining company has overturned and caused a minor hazardous chemical spill in northwestern Nebraska.

Dawes County Deputy Sheriff Scott Swickward says a tankard truck hauling a trailer slipped down a rig early Wednesday morning while delivering a chemical to Crow Butte Resources, Inc. near Crawford. He says the leak resulting from the accident is not a public threat, but nearby residents were evacuated as a precautionary measure.

Swickward says only a valve broke on the truck, causing hydrochloric acid to drizzle out. He says Nebraska hazmat crews have responded to the scene and are working to clean up the spill.

Hydrochloric acid forms a mist that can have an erosive effect on human skin, eyes and other organs.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A mobile message sign set up outside the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus police station has been providing a three-part plea for safety in language that even non-text-savvy people will understand.

First it says, “Stay alive.”

After a few seconds comes the second part: “Don’t text and drive.”

Then finally: “OMG.”

Assistant campus police chief Charlotte Evans said she wanted the message to be snappy. She says that, “If you drove past it and it made you smile, it did what it was intended to do. It got your attention.”

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — International scammers have bilked an Omaha commodities company out of more than $17 million dollars.

An executive with The Scoular Co., which employs 800 and has about $6.2 billion in annual revenue, wired $17.2 million last summer to a bank in China after receiving emails instructing him to do so from someone pretending to be Scoular’s CEO Chuck Elsea and the company’s outside auditing firm.

Court documents say the emails used addresses set up in Germany, France and Israel and computer servers in Moscow.

The FBI says the emails appeared genuine and contained elements of truth, including references to Scoular expanding in China and the company official’s work with the auditing company.

Elsea says the business will not be affected by the loss.

NORFOLK, Neb. (AP) — A grand jury has decided that charges aren’t warranted against a Norfolk officer who struggled with a man who later died.

The 42-year-old man, Andrew Murphy Sr., died at a hospital after the incident at a Norfolk motel on Jan. 7. The grand jury concluded on Tuesday that no crime had been committed by the officer, who has not been named. Nebraska law requires that a grand jury investigate whenever someone dies in custody or while being arrested.

Madison County Attorney Joe Smith said Wednesday morning that he would release autopsy results later in the day.